>>10940761Jim Lee has as much say in who gets the toy license as he does as what the DC movies are about. He's just a publisher for the publishing side of a giant conglomerate and maybe even WB had no say in who the toy license went to, since ATT has been so handsie since they took over.
McFarlane was able to afford the DC license thanks to Five Nights at Freddys money. They cashed in big time, hence a flurry of license purchases from Call of Duty to Game of Thrones to Fortnite. They lucked out that they still had a ton of money left over when WB kicked Mattel to the curb.
Also, Image wasn't anti-establishment. The founders just wanted a bigger part of the profits from what they were creating. They had no problem kicking each other off their own company and keeping other creators out. Image didn't become indie safe until years after Jim Lee sold out to DC.